Biography

Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter, member and patron of
the Impressionists, though he painted in a much more realistic
manner than many other artists in the group. Wealthy and generous,
Caillebotte financially supported his Impressionist friends by
purchasing their works at inflated prices and underwriting many of
the expenses incurred for the exhibitions. Caillebotte was a
painter of great originality. Like the Impressionists, Caillebotte
pursued an instant of vision, recording it with a fullness of
truthful detail. Caillebotte, however, attempted to portray the
rhythms of an industrial society with his regimented figures and
the clock-like precision of his Paris. In this aspect, he was very
much like the Realists.

After the war, Caillebotte began visiting the studio of painter
Léon Bonnat, where he began to seriously study painting. He
developed an accomplished style in a relatively short period of
time and had his first studio in his parents' home. In 1873,
Caillebotte entered into the École des Beaux-Arts, but apparently
did not spend much time there. He inherited his father's fortune in
1874 and the three sons divided the family fortune after their
mother's death in 1878. Around 1874, Gustave Caillebotte met and
befriended several artists working outside the official French
Academy, including Edgar Degas and Giuseppe de Nittis, and attended
(but did not participate in) the first Impressionist exhibition of
1874.

Caillebotte used this fortune to enable himself to paint and to
help out his fellow artists in the Impressionist group.
Caillebotte's role within the Impressionist group was more than
that of a simple fellow participant, and it was his financial
support, rather than his critical success, which was most crucial
to his colleagues.

Gustave Caillebotte is best known for his paintings of urban
Paris, such as The Bridge 'De l'Europe', and Paris
Street; Rainy Day. It's almost unique among his works for its
particularly flat colours and photo-realistic effect which gives
the painting its distinctive and modern look, almost akin to
American Realists such as Edward Hopper.

In 1875, wishing to make his public debut, Gustave Caillebotte
submitted a painting to the Salon jury, which rejected it. That
work was probably The Floorscrapers which Caillebotte then
decided to exhibit in a more hospitable environment, that of the
second Impressionist group exhibition of 1876. His work, highly
acclaimed, stole the show and helped to make the second exhibition
far more of a popular success than the first. Many of Gustave
Caillebotte's urban paintings were quite controversial due to their
exaggerated, plunging perspective.

Caillebotte acquired a property at Petit-Gennevilliers, on the
banks of the Seine near Argenteuil, in 1881, and moved there
permanently in 1888. He ceased showing his work at age 34 and
devoted himself to gardening and to building and racing yachts, and
spent much time with his brother, Martial, and his friend Pierre
Renoir, who often came to stay at Petit-Gennevilliers, and engaged
in far ranging discussions on art, politics, literature, and
philosophy. Gustave Caillebotte drew up a will providing money for
an Impressionist exhibition to be held after his death, and
bequeathing his collection of Impressionist paintings to the State.
Caillebotte died on February 21, 1894 of pulmonary congestion.
Forty of his works now hang in the Musee
d'Orsay.